What we mean by this is we desire a publicly funded, fee-free, accessible education system.

This stand is in stark contrast to the current system where the price of education is put on individuals (not society as a whole), and where universities are forced to conform to detrimental market forces.

How did we get here?

In 2010, the tuition fee cap was raised to £9000 a year, and this year it rose by an extra £250.

When these fee increases were proposed they were met with mass protest, demonstrations were organised locally and nationally, and many students went into occupation. Key moments of these protests included the storming of Milbank, where hundreds of students broke away from a demonstrations and occupied the then Conservative Party Headquarters, and the 9th December Parliament Square protests which took place at the same time as the vote and saw increased police violence, with dozens of students injured, one even critically.

Since those protests and the introduction of the higher fees, the advantage debt you’ll leave University with has more or less doubled, rising from £26,100 in 2011[1], to £50,800 in 2017[2].

The situation is even worse for students from poorer backgrounds who are looking at an average debt of £57,000 (due to having less financial support from family and being more likely to go into low paying jobs meaning more interest build up on their loan debt). All this means the national overall student debt currently sits at over £100 billion (yes you’ve read that right), of which it’s estimated that two-thirds will never be paid off[3].

This system is clearly unstainable.

What we’re doing...

We’re committed to actively building and fighting for free education and we will support any student who wishes to campaign on this issue.

Whether it’s supporting or attending local and national free education demonstrations, holding meetings in order to discuss the benefits of free education, or any other activity you can think of we’re here to help.

Got some ideas? Want our support? Or you want to know how you can get involved in action already taking place?